Things I have become known for

We each carry with us a certain set of skills. Paul outlines that clearly in his New Testament texts, and as you might imagine he even suggests ones that we may want to pray for. One of the real attractions for me going to different places is not only developing new skill sets, such as making a mango, orange, cranberry compote from scratch (without a receipe), but being known for skills that I might not otherwise be able to develop. Here are the things that I have become known for during this time on Iona: 1. My green book. I carried a little green notebook with me while on Iona. It was essentially my day planner while away. It slid easily into my pocket, wasn't bulky, and had plenty of space for jotting down information such as ideas that came to me, hymns that we sang, people's names and email addresses, and most importantly social engagements. Since my social life on Iona far outstrips my social life in the real world, it was a critcally important part of my life. To the extent, my friends would say "did you make a note of that in the green book?" or "Put that in your green book and you can remind me" or my personal favorite, "look that up in the green book and see when that happened."(sadly enough I was able to do so). 2. Little camera with the freakishly amazing zoom. I have a lovely little Canon which also fits into my pocket (next to the green book, and I was working in scrub pants with the little side pocket). I carried it with me everywhere. And while small, it does have a great 14x optical zoom, and a 56x digital zoom. One of my friends began to use me and my freakish camera as a telescope, calling me out of the kitchen to zoom in on something across the field to discover what it was (goose and her gosslings). 3. Images of everything and anything. Yes, when you have a compact camera that goes everywhere with a freakishly amazing zoom, you can have images of everything. I took images of boats that were so far away we couldn't make out what they were. I have images of people from a fairly significant distance, but honored their privacy by not taking them in compromising positions (and actually telling them I had the image). I have an entire collection of images from the kitchen, in case anyone ever wants to know what 1 kg of butter or oats looks like. In fact, the only image I don't have is a friend making me an offer that was easily refused because he was wearing blue rubber gloves (someone else captured that image). I have an incredible collection of sunset and sunrise images, taken from a variety of locations on the island. I have full moon images from July and August over the sound, but sadly enough could not capture the rise of the waning gibbous moon a couple of nights ago (just not enough light). 4. Reading the Bible. Yeah, I know that sounds lame, but I purchased a new Common English Bible prior to coming here, and decided to follow the Read your Bible in 90 days plan. Actually, it is about 60 days because I want to read it while I am in Scotland. Well, two things emerged; one, people became really interested in the plan and wanted to participate, and two, people became really interested in the Bible. But not for the deep theological reason that you might conclude, no, it was because the Common English Bible is a plain text Bible. And frequently, I would shout "Listen to this," and then read a text passage. Some were so outrageous that my roommates would scatter for the other Bible in the room, to see what other translations and interpretations said. Trust me, no interpretation needed, the Bible has some pretty strange stuff going on. While some of that may have no practicality when I return to the "real world" some are things I can take pride in, some I can rejoice in and all I can share. This becomes a thin place.